When I think about the sleep project it is hard to not think about my nights with insomnia. However, I am lucky it is not every night, and very rarely do I not go to sleep at all. I know some people who go days without sleep. I can only imagine the full extent of how this negatively affects our brains. We know sleep is incredibly important for our survival and well-being.

My first post, Something Neuro, talks about the research by Sejnowski & Oakley on the brain and their course called Learning How to Learn they mention how imperative sleep is for brain function. “Importance of Sleep in Learning” section of the course:

“You might be surprised to learn that just plain being awake creates toxic products in your brain. How
does the brain get rid of these poisons? Turns out that when you sleep, your brain cells shrink. This
causes an increase in the space between your brain cells. It’s like unblocking a stream. Fluid can flow
past these cells and wash the toxins out. So sleep, which can sometimes seem like such a waste of
time, is actually your brain’s way of keeping itself clean and healthy.

 

So, let’s get right to a critical idea. Taking a test without getting enough sleep means you’re
operating with a brain that’s got little metabolic toxins floating around in it. Poisons that make it so
you can’t think very clearly. It’s kind of like trying to drive a car that’s got sugar in its gas tank.
Doesn’t work too well. In fact, getting too little sleep doesn’t just make you do worse on tests, too
little sleep, over too long of a time, can also be associated with all sorts of nasty
Conditions, including headaches, depression, heart disease, diabetes, and just plain dying earlier.

 

But sleep does more than just allow your brain to wash away toxins. It’s actually important part of
the memory and learning process. It’s seems that during sleep your brain tidies up ideas and
concepts your thinking about and learning. It erases the less important parts of memories and
simultaneously strengthens areas that you need or want to remember. During sleep your brain also
rehearses some of the tougher parts of whatever you’re trying to learn, going over and over neural
patterns to deepen and strengthen them. Sleep has also been shown to make a remarkable
difference in your ability to figure out difficult problems and to understand what you’re trying to
learn. It’s as if the complete deactivation of the conscious you in the pre-frontal cortex at the
forefront of your brain helps other areas of your brain start talking more easily to one another,
allowing them to put together the neural solution to your learning task while you’re sleeping.

 

Of course, you must also plant the seed for your diffuse mode by first doing focused mode work. If
you’re going over what you’re learning right before you take a nap or going to sleep for the evening
you have an increased chance of dreaming about it. If you go even further and set it in mind that you
want to dream about the material, it seems to improve your chances of dreaming about it still
further. Dreaming about what you’re studying can substantially enhance your ability to understand.
It somehow consolidates your memories into easier to grasp chunks.
And now time for a little sleep”